Hey, Brother – No Jigging, Juking, Jerking, or Jiving! — 51 Fish

CLIENTS: On Tuesday morning, December 9, I fished with my brother, Andy Maindelle, in visiting from Spring, Texas, on Stillhouse Hollow reservoir in pursuit of white bass.

TODAY’S DATE: Tuesday, 09 December 2025 (AM)


NEXT OPEN DATE FOR FISHING: Tuesday, 16 December 2025 (AM or PM)

PHOTO CAPTION: Andy Maindelle with a pair of 13.50 -14.00 Stillhouse Hollow white bass taken on the white, 3/4 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slab.

FIND LURES HERE: https://whitebasstools.com/


WHERE WE FISHED: Stillhouse Hollow


SUMMARY OF HOW WE FISHED:
Water temperatures continue to fall after we experienced our first two morning frosts on Monday and Tuesday morning this week. Although the water is chilling, it is not chilling at the rapid rate which really put the fish off last week. Today’s weather was not impacted by frontal activity, nor was it the first day of a returning southerly wind, hence I anticipated so-so fishing, and that is just what we experienced.

One bright spot was that, for the first time this year, feeding gulls were helpful in locating fish over the course of our first hour on the water. These fish were spread over quite an area and although the thumper would routinely draw small schools of fish in, we found that covering ground by casting horizontally with curltail grubs on jigheads produced better than vertical tactics did during this bird-influenced span of time.

After the birds went back to roost, the action slowed for the remainder of the morning, although we were able to catch fish through 12:50 PM.

The remainder of the morning’s fishing involved “slow smoking“ with the white, three-quarter ounce Bladed Hazy Eye Slab. We simply dropped it to bottom and reeled it very smoothly and steadily upwards while observing Garmin LiveScope for chasing fish. The key on this technique is never breaking the cadence of the retrieve which attracted the fish in the first place until after the fish strikes. If, while a fish is chasing, you speed up, slow down, hesitate, or break into jigging, juking, jiving, or jerking the fish will veer off, and the opportunity will be lost. In this manner, we landed exactly 51 fish, including one freshwater drum, two largemouth bass, and 48 white bass

RESULTS: 51 fish, all caught and released


TUTORIAL VIDEO ON HOW “SLOW SMOKE” A BLADED HAZY EYE SLAB VERTICALLY: Click here for tutorial

OBSERVATIONS:

-We saw a drastic water temperature decrease (5 degrees F) in less than a week’s time, enhanced by lack of sunlight due to cloud cover all week. Water surface temp. now at ~60F, down from 68.5 less than a 10 days ago.

-First occurrence of helpful bird activity this fall; about 20 gulls in just one area, but, it is a start.

LATEST WATER TEMPERATURE PROFILE: Temperature profile measured on Stillhouse around 6:45A on Friday, 28 November …

Compare to temps taken on Stillhouse Hollow around 6:30A on Saturday, 15 November…

0 feet 68.6F
5 feet 68.6F
10 feet 68.6F
15 feet 68.6F
20 feet 68.6F
25 feet 68.6F
30 feet 68.6F
35 feet 68.4F
40 feet 68.2F
45 feet 67.4F
50 feet 66.6F
55 feet 66.4F
60 feet 66.0F
65 feet 66.0F

AREAS FISHED WITH MOST SUCCESS:

Area vic 0082 – 16 fish on slow-smoked slabs & curl-tail grubs

Area vic 2297/SH0286G – 4 fish on curl-tail grubs

Area SH002 – 2 fish on slow-smoked slabs

Area vic 851/852 -9 fish on slow-smoked slabs

Area 2319 – 2 fish on slow-smoked slabs

Area 646/SH0050G – 7 fish on slow-smoked slabs

Area 2324 – 11 fish on slow-smoked slabs

Bob Maindelle


Full-time, Professional Fishing Guide and Owner of Holding the Line Guide Service

Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide

(254) 368 7411 (call or text)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle